Pele and Poli‘ahu -A Tale of Fire and Ice

Description

Long, long ago,
on the Island of Hawai‘i,
there lived two beautiful goddesses.
Pele, the goddess of fire,
lived on the slopes of Mauna Loa.
Poli‘ahu, the goddess of snow,
lived on the snowcapped peaks of Mauna Kea.

So begins the retelling of the classic Hawaiian legend—a tale of fire and ice—when Pele ventured off her fiery mountaintop to make mischief and challenge Poli‘ahu to a sled race down the snowy slopes of Mauna Kea.

It is a story about the power of nature, the power of wills, the power of skill, and an explanation of why the Big Island, to this day, is an island of contrasts.